Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) killed.

1956		‘Vin Packer’ Young and Violent 64: For your lips, for your kiss / I’d even get wasted.
1964		P. Marshall ‘Some Get Wasted’ in Clarke Harlem, USA (1971) 350: Massacre Hill they called it — where many a stud had either built his rep or gotten wasted.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 154: The bomb was dropped at eight fifteen the next morning over the city of Hiroshima [...] At least seventy-eight thousand citizens were wasted in a single brilliant blast.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 67: Gibson Hand knew that the cops who yelled first and gave their crazy fuckin selves a chance to get wasted did their work on celluloid, not in real life.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 11: The Kid From Brooklyn falls in pieces all over the area, blown away, killed in action and wasted, shot dead and slaughtered.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: Wasted — Under the influence of drugs; murdered.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] Everything got fucked up [...] Bruiser got wasted, he’s dead.

2. (US) ruined, destroyed.

1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 132: I was getting ready to get married before I got wasted.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 106: He’s wasted.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 118: I’ve caught too many beatin’s in my time not to know when I been wasted.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 44: We’re all thinkin’ Isaacs gonna get wasted.

3. (US) penniless.

1954		‘“Hipster” Rev. Dict.’ Mad mag. Oct. 20: broke – wasted.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 569/1: wasted [...] Without funds; broke. Cool and beat use since c.1950, rock-and-roll use since c.1955.

4. utterly overcome by a drug.

1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 154: Better let me help you up the steps, man, you’re wasted.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 45: Kesey was soaring on LSD and his sense of time was wasted.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 32: So Tiny horns a little just to be cool [...] and he gets wasted jim.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 304: Most of the guests escaped [...] but apparently some were too wasted to make it.
1998		C. Fleming High Concept 118: Don and Melanie were so damn wasted at that party.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 158: Chris was wasted.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 196: They were both too wasted to get the tiny key in the lock.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 109: Getting wasted, screwin hooses, trying tae screw lassies.
2012		‘First Dog on the Moon’ in crikey,com.au 2 July 🌐 Most of the 16 year olds i know are wasted most of the time.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 54: [T]here’s stewards all over the place looking out for wasted kids.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 208: I was pretty wasted on some fucking skag.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 69: He got wasted and started bragging how he offed some rich bitch.

5. feeling very ill.

1958		J. Blake letter 11 Feb. in Joint (1972) 114: He looked pretty awful – gaunt, pale, wasted.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 195: I went to the hospital and found a momma wasted by some killing germs.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 144: Renton was too nervy to feel badly wasted.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 59: Am fucked, mun, knackered, all-a fuckin sudden apserfuckinlutely fucked like. Weysted.

6. exhausted.

1958		M.A. Crane ‘Miscellany’ in AS XXXIII:3 225: You can be hung if you are merely tired, in which case you are also destroyed, wiped out, and wasted.
1976		J.W. Dean III Blind Ambition 139: He was literally wasted. There was no energy in his voice.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Joseph Martinez’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 219: You look wasted.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 171: No man . . . no, I say wasted.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] I’m not elegantly wasted. I’m completely fucked.
2000		J. Hawes Dead Long Enough 195: Right. I’m wasted and I’m cold and I am going to the hotel.

7. badly beaten up.

1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 15: I felt that bragging to other fellas about how many cherries I’d cracked or how many panties came down on rooftops or back yards was nobody’s business but my own, and besides, I was afraid my old lady would find out and I’d get my behind wasted.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: get wasted v. […] 4. to be severely beaten.

8. very drunk, thus naked wasted, of a drink, extremely intoxicating.

1965		P. Wylie Esquire July 44–45: to get wasted — to get drunk.
1973		C. Gaines Stay Hungry 138: They got a wasted one in there [...] He drank too much.
1984		Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 23 Aug. We had a 40oz of Scotch Whiskey. It was great! I got drunk and Steve D. was wasted too.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 88: Course, I can’t get too wasted . . . gotta skate all the way home.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] After two more doubles I was pretty wasted.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 19: He was [...] wasted to the shanks and barely capable of human speech.
2008		Islington N.H.S. anti-drinking campaign Dec. [poster] Blotto, hammered, legless, plastered, smashed, wasted . . . whatever you call it, don’t let the Christmas spirit make a fool of you!
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 117: There were folks here and there [...] a couple of them staggering and plain wasted.
2016		Observer 20 Mar. 🌐 I remember getting wasted on that scale under the old regieme, on three or four occasions.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘I’d go out and get ferociously wasted’.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 67: ‘Are you wasted?’ Josephine says. ‘I’ve had a few’.
2023		J. Jackson Pineapple Street 229: Malcolm gestured to Georgiana’s cocktail, which looked like antifreeze in a martini glass. He took a sip and winced. ‘That’s like naked-wasted stuff’.

9. in serious trouble.

1971

H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: get wasted v. […] 3. to be in serious trouble.

10. (US black) of a woman, unattractive.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 145: Unattractiveness is often characterized in terms that suggest [...] the effects of prolonged drug abuse (wasted, tore down).